Church of Scientology hits rough patch

Tue Oct 27, 7:41 pm ET
On Monday, a French court convicted the Church of Scientology on fraud charges stemming from complaints by two women. The judge in the case levied massive fines as punishment, fueling a long-running battle between Scientology and France, which considers the group a "sect" rather than a religion. The legal ruling is the latest in a string of recent setbacks for the star-studded organization. Here's a recap of what's taken place recently:

French court rules against Scientology

The judge in Paris ordered the Church of Scientology to pay a €600,000 fine (roughly US$900,000) and sentenced its French leader to two years in prison along with a €30,000 fine (US$44,000) for "organized fraud." One of the women involved in the complaint claimed that she was conned into spending over €20,000 (US$29,500) on vitamins and life-improvement courses after she took one of the stress tests the group is known for administering to prospective members. Another claimed that she was fired by her boss, a Scientologist, after she declined to complete initiation. France refuses to acknowledge the group as a religion and views it as a profit-generating commercial organization. Scientology has been highly scrutinized by the nation's authorities over the past decade for fraud and for making false claims to consumers, causing many to call for the Church of Scientology's ouster for allegedly posing a threat to "public order."

Reacting to the judge's ruling, Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis said that the ruling violated the group's rights and that he expected it to be thrown out on appeal at a later date.High-profile members defectScientology lost one of its more well-known members last week when Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Paul Haggis ("Crash," "Million Dollar Baby") publicly renounced his membership. In a letter to Davis, Haggis cited the group's opposition to gay-marriage rights in California. He also chastised Davis' recent public denial of Scientology's mandate of "disconnecting," which allegedly requires members to cut ties with disapproving friends and family members. In the letter, Haggis said that his wife went so far as to disown her parents, despite his protestations. He went on to denounce Davis for using personal information to smear Scientology defectors like Amy Scobee, the person who led the group's celebrity recruitment efforts for more than 20 years. About the treatment of Scobee,

Haggis wrote:
How dare you use private information in order to label someone an "adulteress?" You took Amy Scobee's most intimate admissions about her sexual life and passed them onto the press and then smeared them all over the pages your newsletter! ... She ran the entire celebrity center network, and was a loyal senior executive of the church for what, 20 years? You want to rebut her accusations, do it, and do it in the strongest terms possible - but that kind of character assassination is unconscionable.

Haggis' defection comes on the heels of persistent rumors that John Travolta, one of the group's most prominent members, is planning to walk away from Scientology as well. In response to the letter, Tommy Davis said that Haggis' disagreements with the group are based on "misunderstandings" and that Scientology is in fact firmly in favor of gay-marriage rights.Newly appointed spokesperson sparks controversyPrior to Paul Haggis' letter being made public, Davis himself made news when he angrily stormed out of an interview with "Nightline" interviewer Martin Bashir after Bashir asked him whether or not he believed in Xenu, the intergalactic warlord reportedly at the center of Scientology's theology. Davis said the line of questioning perpetuated "disgusting perversions" about Scientology.

He then showed up at ABC's headquarters in New York 45 minutes before the interview was set to air and demanded that the network pull the footage from its broadcast, a request that was denied.

Additionally, a source said to be close to Davis recently told The Daily Beast that his checkered past puts him at odds with the group's notoriously strict "executive posting qualifications." Davis, however, denies that he is a "drug revert." Prior to becoming the group's main public face, Davis (the son of actress Anne Archer, a longtime Scientologist) was Tom Cruise's "personal, full-time assigned Scientology handler," something that has caused some, including Paul Haggis, to claim that Davis received special treatment in obtaining his position, an assertion he vigorously denies.

Even for a group familiar with scandal, the combination of negative stories may have Scientology's PR enforcers - Davis included - on the defensive.

-- Brett Michael Dykes is a contributor to the Yahoo! News Blog

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